Stopping By The Woods
by kwaak02
Summary: In 1994 four-year old Robin Percy was walking home from school with another kindergartener and was never seen again. Three months later two burned up corpes were found with their personal items. In December 2015 two boys climbed over the fence separating Covington Woods and the outside world. Twelve hours later Vivian and Robert Percy found out that their son was still alive.
1. Chapter 1

"Baby sleep, gently sleep.

Life is long and love is deep.

Time will-"

Ivy stopped singing. Confused looked she up. Was that a voice?

"...Think this was a good idea?" Said the voice in the distance.

"What? Don't know 'bout you Dan, but I'm pretty sure I prefer this over explaining to the cops why two guys where found robbing a cabin and having two bags full of medicin that have a street worth of twenty grand?" Replied a lower, calmer voice.

"You know Peter, that guy has people working in every place you can think of. We would get outta there immediately, instead of freezing in fucking Covington Woods!"

The conversation continued, albeit in such a way Ivy couldn't fully comprehend it. This was her chance. They, those two voices were the hope for Lucius. She was so lost in her musings that she only just now realised that the talking had stopped and the men who the voices belonged to were standing in front of her.

After some time passed and it was clear the two men were not making any attempts at speaking, Ivy musterd up enough courage.

"Are you from the towns?" She asked nervously.

"Uh...what?"

"Are you from the towns?" Ivy repeated.

"Er, well, we're from Philadelphia if that's what you wanna know. What's your name?"

"Ivy Elizabeth Walker."

"Uh- well, Mine is Pepper. This is my friend Dandelion, Dan for short." Pepper gestured towards his counterpart.

Ivy wasn't concerned with wondering about these odd names. "Please, will you help me? I need to find a doctor of medicine. I must find these things, we must make haste."

The men seemed to get confused by the minute. "What medicine?"

Ivy took the piece of paper out of her waist of her dress and handed it over to Pepper.

"Pepp, I don't think this is a very good idea." Said the voice that belonged to Dan.

"What. Why? Hand me the flashlight, will ya?"

Dan scoffed. "Unbelievable."

"We can argue about this later. Now this girl needs our help." Pepper nodded to Ivy, altough she couldn't see it.

Dan scoffed again, but Ivy heard some rustling and then a click.

"Ehh...," He peered at the piece of paper. "Cefazolin, Cefoxitin and...what's this? Erythro...something." Pepper sighed. "Listen, I have no idea what you need, so I'll just..ehh..God. Dan, help me out a bit."

"No. No. she could just as well be a junkie, and I won't let us ruin an order just because you wanna be a hero. No." He seemed resolute.

Pepper took a deep breath. "Does she look like a junkie to you? No? Good. I won't let her go without the thing she needs."

"There is no way in hell that she's gonna run off to God knows where and that we just have to assume that we can trust her."

"Then let's go with her. With that you can keep an eye on her. Riley was pretty relaxed about this delivery, so a day or two delay won't matter."

Dan didn't say anything for a couple of seconds and then proceeded to close his eyes. "Fine."

"Am I not fit to be handed over medicine?" Ivy asked uncertain.

"I think you are. Dan daarentegen... So we"ll come with you."

Ivy was speechless for a moment, then she took the pocket watch out of the waist of her dress and held it towards the young man.

"Please, take this as payment."

Pepper took a few steps back in suprise. "Whoa, whoa, easy Ivy. You don't need to pay me."

"Well actually-" Dandelion was cut off before he could finish the sentence.

"Is it far?" Pepper asked Ivy.

She managed to shakily say "Half a day's journey.".

Pepper nodded thoughtfully. "Shall we leave now? If we hurry we're there around eleven o'clock."

Ivy nodded. "Yes, please."

The following hours passed quietly, only broken by Dandelion's cursing , Pepper's questions and the breaking of dawn.

When the darkness had left to be replaced by grey Pepper stood suddenly still. "Don't. Move." He had his arms held out to prevent Ivy and Dandelion from walking any further.

Before them stood a seven feet tall creature, shrouded in a flaming red cloak.


	2. Chapter 2

The reaction of most people when they see a giant, bear-like creature is not to run towards it, thrust said being on the ground and punch it several times in the face. Pepper wasn't most people. As he kept bashing in on the face the monster started to make whimpering noises. Luckily for the beast Pepper wasn't yet in his Very Dark Place, and had still the ability to stop his mutilation. As he was trying to comprehend the human-like sound Ivy ran to Pepper and started...tearing at the face of the thing? There was no other way he could describe the scenery before him. The frantic "help me!" from Ivy snapped him into reality.

"With what?!"

"This mask needs to be removed from his face!"

Pepper could say with certainty that this was the most strange situation in his life so far. "That is a mask?!" His voice had grown louder, and the few birds that hadn't already flown away from the turmoil on the ground certainly had now.

Dandelion, who had remained paralysed during the entire fight opened his mouth. "What's under it?"

Ivy didn't answer immediately. "A friend."

Pepper could now clearly hear groaning and whimpering and finally came into action. After a bit of fiddling and searching he came to the conclusion that the mask had to be pulled back. With one swift movement the mask was removed, revealing a face of a man in his late twenties, covered in blood. Pepper quickly assessed the damage. The mask had taken most of the blows, but the man still had a blooy nose. He came to the conclusion that it was nothing serious.

In the mean time the man was looking at Ivy, who didn't say anything. Instead she stood up and picked up her cane that had fallen on the ground and proceeded to walk away in the direction Pepper assumed they needed to go.

Pepper stood up and jogged to Ivy. "Hey! What the hell? You're not gonna help your friend?" Ivy didn't say anything.

"We must hurry if we want to be there on time for supper."

"That's it?! 'Supper'! That's your excuse for leaving your friend behind -I don't even know his name, for Gods sake!"

Ivy's face was impossible to read. "His name is Noah. Please, we need to hurry." Pepper sighed. why was he doing this again?

"Alright. Dan will go with you, Noah and I will catch up with you later."

"I am capable of traveling alone. You should hand the medicine over to me."

"No." Pepper was confused and frustrated. Now he was damn sure he would go with her. "It's us coming with you, or no medicine at all."

In the village all the elders had gathered around Lucius. A boy (Martin Peterson as Vivian recalled) came up to them looking excited.

"Ivy has returned with medicines from the towns. Noah is with her- and two boys from the towns!" They all looked stunned.

Vivian was the first to react. She quickly stood up and made her way outside. she saw her son. He was alive and standing. She ran towards Noah and pulled him into a hug. The moment was then disrupted by a cough. Vivian looked up. Another boy was standing next to Noah. In her hurry to get to her son she did not notice him. Which was odd, considering that he looked bizarre even if he came from the towns. He had white hair- to such an extend it was almost unnatural. He was of average height and pale, but the most notable were the dark circles under his eyes.

Robert came walking towards the trio, he also completely ignored the boy and layed his hand on the shoulder of his son. "Noah. Do not do such a thing ever again. Your mother and I were worried sick." After a few seconds of silence he noticed the odd clothes Noah was dressed in. "What are you wearing?" Noah merely pointed at the boy, who apparently was still standing next to him.

The boy made an awkward waving-gesture with his left hand. "Hay." At this point Vivian noticed that the boy was wearing nothing but socks, underwear and a T-shirt. She knew he was probably older than twenty, but the way he was dressed gave the impression of a child. He was nervously fiddling with the hem of his shirt. "I uh...I gave Noah my clothes. He didn't have anything to shield him from the cold, so...yeah." Vivian was taken aback by the fact that this boy would so carelessly give his garments away. After an awkward silence Vivian spoke gently. "That was a very kind thing to do. May I ask for your name?"

"Pepper." Her heart skipped a beat for a second. Could it be? No. Robin was dead. She had seen her baby boy's body herself. It was silly to think of such things.

"My name is Robert Percy. I am Noah's father. This is my wife, Vivian Percy." Robert always knew what to do in unusual situations. "You must be cold, Pepper."

It almost seemed impossible, but the boy got even paler. His breathing became uneven and he stopped with the fiddling. "Percy." he whispered. Pepper took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Any chance that you are related to Robin Percy?" His voice was shaking.

Vivian gasped and grabbed the hand of her husband. "Why?".

Pepper opened his mouth, but he made no sound. And before either she or her husband could react the boy ran away with a speed Vivian didn't expect of somebody who had spend several hours in his undergarments outside, whilst it was freezing. That was also the moment the other boy came running towards them. He looked confused.

"What happened?"

Before she could say anything Robert spoke up. "Do you recognize the name 'Robert Percy'?" He said it in a blunt, sharp way. No matter how much time passed, it did still hurt.

The dark-haired boy's eyes grew wide in suprise. "Yes. That is the name of my friend that just ran away."


End file.
